Although Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others have defended it, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris suggested it's at best superfluous in terms of helping local law enforcement combat serious crime and at worst a diversion of resources to enforcing federal immigration law.
"Proponents of this legislation have repeatedly said that the new law provides a tool for local law enforcement, but I don't really believe that that's true or accurate," Harris said at an April 30 news conference. "We have the tools that we need to enforce laws in this state to reduce property crime and to reduce violent crime, to go after criminals that are responsible for human smuggling, to go after criminals that are responsible for those home invasions, kidnappings, robberies, murders."
Judith Gans, who manages the Immigration Policy Program at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona, said predictions that crime will drop because of the law are "really overstated." While Mexican drug- and human- smugglers pose an ongoing threat, most illegal immigrants try to avoid causing problems once in the United States, she said.
"There are lots of studies that have confirmed that immigrants, and especially undocumented immigrants, are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population," Gans said.
1) Has the crime rate gone up? In what sense? 2) Is illegal immigration the "cause" ? 3) The problem with drugs is separate from immigration. Conflating the two is not going to help us get to the root of the problem.
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Re: here's a little... now your turn
Date: 17/5/10 02:26 (UTC)1) Has the crime rate gone up? In what sense?
2) Is illegal immigration the "cause" ?
3) The problem with drugs is separate from immigration. Conflating the two is not going to help us get to the root of the problem.